Professional Boundaries
by badhairdays
Summary: Steve and Kono meet on a beach in Hawaii. Or a bar in Australia. Depending on how you look at it.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own anything; all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).

**Professional Boundaries**

Steve and Kono meet on a beach in Hawaii. Or a bar in Australia. Depending on how you look at it.

A/N: Thanks to Diana (cm757) for her unwavering support throughout the writing of this story. You know this wouldn't have happened without you.

**···················**

"Ho brah." The guy turns and has a split second to duck—but doesn't. Fucking tourists. "Think twice next time you want to drop in on someone's wave." She warns. Is it still a warning if she's already punched him? Whatever. It's educational. You know, a learning experience, a chance for him to evolve and shit.

She picks up her surfboard, planning to walk away dramatically, at least give the guy a story to go with the bruised ego, but Chin is there. She decides dramatic exits are overrated anyway.

She greets Chin enthusiastically, for no particular reason other than he's been avoiding her, in some misguided hope he'll get out of attending her graduation dinner—which, by the way, so not happening. Chin is going if she has to drug him, put him in her trunk and cuff him to a chair.

They commiserate over the general stupidity of tourists and then she looks at the guys standing behind him.

"Kono. Meet Commander Steve McGarrett and Detective Danny Williams." Chin introduces, and Kono turns to shake the Commander's hand, ready to be all polite and professional—you know, if you kindly ignore the fact that she's wearing a bathing suit. But then she recognizes the guy.

Fuck. Me.

**···················**

There's a girl at the bar sipping a bottle of generic beer and staring absent mindedly at the TV. She looks young but she's drinking so he guesses nineteen, twenty? Which is still pretty young, just not enough to make him look away. Hey, fuck you, it's been a long dry spell, okay? You don't get to judge.

Besides, she's hot. She's wearing jean shorts and her legs are toned, her skin tanned from hours of sunlight. He wonders idly if she has any tan lines. He wonders whether he'll get to find out.

There are other girls there; a blonde has even been throwing glances his way for a while but fuck it. If he's picking up girls at bars now, he might as well go for the one he's been trying to imagine naked since he walked in.

He picks up his drink and walks over, sits on the stool next to hers.

"You need another drink?" He asks, gesturing the bartender for a refill without waiting for her answer. Asshole move, but whatever.

She turns to look at him, startled, ready to be offended. Stares at him for a second, then rolls her eyes. "Sure."

Yeah. He gets away with this a lot.

"I'm Steve." There's a small pause, like she's considering ignoring him, but basic civility works in his favor.

"Kono."

"It's nice to meet you." He says politely. What? Fuck you, man. He doesn't do pick-up lines.

"Right." She nods, turning to look back at the TV. She doesn't look all that impressed at this point.

"So, you're here on vacation?" He asks, genuinely curious. She looks like she could be from the islands. But maybe he's getting nostalgic and imagining things. He hasn't been back in…how many years now?

"Nope." She replies. "Here for the surfing competition."

He almost asks if she's a fan, but acting like an asshole won't help his case any. He's just in a crappy mood because he's been stood up in _Australia_. Catherine was supposed to take some time off, meet him there, but called to cancel after he'd already landed in a different continent. So he's stuck here for the weekend. Alone.

Unless he can persuade this girl otherwise.

"You're competing?" He asks instead, and when she nods he's sort of impressed. Okay. He's very impressed. She seems to pick up on it, gives him a satisfied smile. Yeah. People have underestimated this girl a lot—and she has enjoyed proving them wrong.

He's kind of turned on right now.

"How about you?" She asks genuinely, and what do you know? He might stand a chance after all.

"I'm on leave, just here for the weekend."

She lets out a muffled snort, shaking her head.

"What?" Steve asks warily.

"Nothing!" She defends, laughing. "It's just—does that work for you? The whole soldier back from the war routine?" She asks incredulously.

"I'm in the Navy, actually." He feels the need to clarify. This is not going at all how he'd hoped.

"Of course. Right. What am I saying? Of course it works for you." She shakes her head again, as if deeply disappointed that anyone would fall for that line. Or that anyone would use it, for that matter.

"I wouldn't know." He says honestly. He doesn't try to talk complete strangers into sleeping with him that often. "Is it working on you?"

She turns towards him, studying his face for a bit. "Maybe." She admits finally, sounding reluctant. Her smile looks a bit self-deprecating, as if she should know better than this.

Steve smiles back. _That's okay, sweetheart_, he thinks. _I can be very persuasive_.

**···················**

They go back to his hotel because it's closer than hers, act real casual on the way up to his room. No inappropriate PDA in the elevator for the Commander. That's right. Turns out he really _is_ in the Navy. Who would have guessed?

He lets her walk in first, closes the door behind them and takes a step closer to her, then another, until he backs her to the wall. His face is completely blank, and he's making her nervous so she tries to lighten the mood before she talks herself out of this completely.

"Hey." She smiles, wondering if they can skip the awkward part of the evening and get straight to the touching part.

"Hey." He says in a low voice and that's just completely unnecessary, brah, cause she's already decided to sleep with him. She doesn't need any more convincing. He moves closer, presses his body against hers. Her breath catches, and he leans down, kisses her with careful deliberation.

He takes off her clothes slowly, moves them to the bed. When she tries to help with the undressing he laughs like she's being ridiculous, tells her to slow down, let him do all the work. She tries to relax, tries to be okay with this, but it feels off somehow, too intimate, too leisurely for a one night stand. This actually feels more intimate than some of her relationships so far.

He kisses her and it helps until she looks at him again, and he looks starved for things she's not sure she's able to give. She opens her mouth to tell him to stop, make up an excuse, anything, but he kisses her again. He hooks her leg higher up his back then thrusts inside and she grabs at the sheets and forgets what she was thinking about. It's slow; he keeps whispering things in her ear and she doesn't even believe half of the stuff he's saying but—god, it's so fucking hot.

He falls asleep still half on top of her, and she tries to nudge him off for about fifteen minutes before she gives up. It still takes her a while to get to sleep. When she wakes up, it's about five, and he's on the other side of the bed. She counts her blessings and gets up to leave, gathering her clothes silently.

She feels weird. Overexposed, maybe. She's still not sure this turned out so great. The sex was hot and there was barely any meaningful conversation, which she understands is pretty much what you look for in this sort of thing.

Still. She thought it would have been a bit more impersonal, a little less…real maybe. But no. Shows what she knows about this stuff, she thinks, shaking her head. _Relationships_.

She looks at Steve sprawled all over the bed and considers leaving a note or something but, really, she doesn't want him to call. She wants to take a shower and then pretend this never happened.

Honestly. She should just stick to surfing—it's the only thing she's good at.

**···················**

She stares at Steve for a second and then snaps out of it, turning to shake the detective's hand, but it's too late because Chin's already noticed. Of course he noticed. Fuck.

"Something wrong?" He asks, worried.

"No, brah. Everything's fine." She says simply, even though it's probably not. It kind of depends on a lot of things right now, like how Chin knows Commander McGarrett and what they're all doing here and if Steve recognizes her.

Chin does not look convinced. He furrows his brow, ready to keep pushing, which can only make things more awkward for everyone involved, but Steve intervenes.

"I'm sorry." He says, completely casual. Yeah right. "I think we've met before?" He asks, and Kono can tell he remembers even though he phrased it like a question.

"Right. Yeah. I remember." She confirms, trying not to look as uncomfortable with subject as she is. Chin is still watching, suspicious. "It's nice to see you again, Commander." She adds, trying to make it sound like they'd met in some official capacity and not fucked in his hotel room.

"You too." Steve nods politely, but he looks tense and serious. Fuck. This must be work related; he must know Chin from the job somehow. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Let her reiterate: fuck.

"Exactly how small_ is_ this island?" Detective Williams asks incredulously, looking exasperated.

Wait a minute.

Is he wearing a tie?

Seriously?

"When was this?" Chin interjects in a careful voice that tells her he's not buying this shit.

"A few years ago." She explains vaguely and then decides to change the subject. Chin might try to bring it up later but at least there won't be an audience. "You needed something?"

"Your cousin tells us you're graduating from the police academy next week." Steve says immediately, almost as eager as her for a change of topic. "How'd you like to earn a little extra credit before you do?"

Right. So this _is_ about work. Fucking spectacular.

"I'm listening."

**···················**


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own anything; all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).

A/N: Thanks to Diana for the support and to everyone for reading.

**···················**

She's supposed to be doing paperwork but it's just not happening right now, with workers moving shit around and being generally disruptive. Also, her pen is running out. That's right. The pen was brand new too, which should tell you how long she's been writing. She's almost done though, just needs to get to the end of this senten—damn it.

She huffs in annoyance, looks around for another pen. You'd think there would be pens in an office. But apparently you'd be wrong.

Someone clears their throat and she looks up from the desk to see Steve standing there, looking awful. His face is bruised and his arm is in a sling and he doesn't seem at all convinced this is over. They haven't found Victor Hesse's body yet.

"You got a pen?" She asks, because she literally has only three fucking syllables left. Three, brah. If only someone would give her a freaking pen.

Steve looks at her blankly for a moment. "No." He says definitively, as if it was absurd of her to even suggest such a thing. Of course. Why would _he_ need a pen when _she's _the one saddled with all the paperwork? SEALs probably don't need pens, anyway. They've achieved a higher plane of existence and can just glare at reports until they burst into flames.

Kono goes back to ruffling through the desk drawers.

"You handled yourself well today." He states in a cautious voice. She glances up at him again, smiles politely.

"Thank, Boss."

He flinches. He fucking flinches. What the fuck is wrong with this guy, seriously? Whatis she _supposed_ to call him, for fuck's sake?

"Right." He says. "About that. I think you'd make a great addition to the team, Kono. I just wanted to make sure you'd be comfortable with—everything." Everything meaning working for someone she slept with half a decade ago.

Yeah. Because the potential awkwardness has never occurred to her. Not at all.

"It's fine." She says simply. "It's a great opportunity, right?" And it is. She'd been prepared to work her ass off, keep her mouth shut and try to prove herself in spite of the perceived stigma of being related to Chin, but now…Now she may not have to.

"Sure. Of course." Steve nods but doesn't move away. Kono is beginning to suspect _he's _the one who's uncomfortable with this. Control issues, much?

"Look", she starts hesitantly, watching him closely for a reaction, "if this is going to be a problem for you—"

"No, it's fine." He says quickly, as his phone starts ringing. He takes it out of his pocket, looks at the caller ID. "Sorry, I have to take this." He excuses himself and she gestures for him to go ahead, relieved to be done with this conversation.

She finds a red pen in the bottom drawer, but can't remember if they're allowed to use red ink on arrest reports. Yeah. She may have to call Chin about this.

Not that that's humiliating or anything.

**···················**

When the shooting starts Kono tackles Natalie, or whatever her real name is, to the floor, trying to get her to drop the gun, but this is one stubborn bitch right here. There's a struggle and the gun goes off, hitting the nearby propane tanks that catch on fire. Shit, shit, SHIT. Why are there always propane tanks near a gun fight? WHY?

The bitch is grabbing her arm so she can't quite pull back enough for a punch, but she manages to elbow her in the mouth then she gets up shakily, running out just as the propane tanks explode, the building going up in flames.

She lands face first on the ground and seriously considers just staying there. Her whole body hurts, her face is bruising and there is no way of making it to her graduation dinner that doesn't involve the use of a time machine. So this day pretty much sucks. At least she's still alive though.

And so is their kidnapping victim. And his son.

So, okay. Maybe this day was not a total waste of make-up.

There's a warm hand on her back, Steve asking her if she's okay. This might be a trick question; she's been knocked around, beaten, nearly drowned, nearly shot, nearly blown up, and _missed her graduation dinner_. But yeah, sure. Can't have the boss worrying over the rookie. She manages to croak out she's fine and he helps her sit up before he's gone, off to arrest that Drago guy who somehow made it out unscathed.

"You had me worried for a second there, cuz." Chin says, putting away his weapon.

"I had it all under control." She lies shamelessly with a shrug, but even shrugging hurts at this point so she immediately regrets doing it. But yes. She could have taken five armed guys out by herself. Sure.

She could probably have done it blindfolded, brah.

Yeah.

Chin's not buying it either.

**···················**

Steve is watching the game, because that's what he's here to do. He's here to watch the game with his coworkers, not stare at Kono's legs. Which is easier said than done, given that Kono's wearing a pair of denim shorts he could swear he's seen before. In fact, he vividly recalls helping her out of them.

But this is not what he should be thinking about. Kono is his subordinate. He can care about her, feel responsible for her safety, he can even be her friend. But he has to stop thinking of her as that girl he met in a bar—because that's not who she is anymore. He's seen her in the field, and Kono can take care of herself.

He needs to stop obsessing. Danny frequently informs him it's a major character flaw.

He is resolutely looking away, trying to pay attention to the game, when she suddenly jumps up to start yelling at the ref, and this time he feels perfectly justified in staring because he doesn't think he's seen _anyone_ so animated before. As in, ever.

It's kind of cute.

Wait. Did he say cute? He meant alarming.

**···················**

The thing about making out with Steve is—so, okay, they have to be convincing, the whole plan sort of depends on it. She gets that. She's game. Totally. Also—and not that she wants to bring this up or anything—she's made out with him before and it's not, like, a hardship.

It's actually sort of fun. In a completely inappropriate, let's add this to the things we never talk about, kind of way.

But then, what happens is—in the minute it takes to get from the bushes by the pool to right in front of the bad guys, their fake little make out session has spiraled out of control. Like, hands under clothes, actual moaning, out of control. Well. The moaning was mostly her.

_Awkward_.

Then suddenly all hell breaks loose and it's possible she may have used more force than strictly necessary to take out that one mobster guy out of sheer frustration. They save Sid and the bad guys are either unconscious or dead, so…job done, day saved, someone give her a medal.

Kono takes the time to straighten the silly dress she's been wearing and tries to calm down. Her skin feels tight and itchy and still sort of warm wherever he touched her and this is a train of thought that is not getting her heart rate down anytime soon.

"So, that was convincing." Danny remarks drily with a smirk, cuffing a passed out mobster. "The eating each other's face off thing." He clarifies, because that's very helpful and Danny is just a helpful kind of guy.

"Bite me." See? Kono can be helpful too.

**···················**


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own anything; all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).

A/N: I'm borrowing a line from a rather witty episode recap on recapsontap. Hope nobody minds. You know what they say, imitation is the highest form of flattery.

**···················**

Steve calls the Governor about the Grace thing, because Danny's ex sounds like a bitch. Steve's seen Danny with Grace, he's listened to him talk about his daughter pretty much nonstop from the day he met the guy, so he knows, like any _sane person_ would, than Danny is a great father. So apparently Danny was married to a mental patient. Which he actually doesn't find all that surprising.

When he hangs up he keeps staring at his phone, trying to remember if he has anything else to take care of.

Other than his insistent need to get off. Fuck. Fuckfuckfuck. Fuck.

Let him reiterate: fuck.

It was his plan, so it's his fault. He had maybe a minute to come up with something and there were probably a million others things they could have used as a distraction. Hell, _Danny_ could have made out with Kono. But no, no, what he comes up with conveniently involves making out with his subordinate in front of the rest of the team, her cousins, and a handful of mobsters.

Fuck.

He knew it—he fucking knew it from the moment he saw her again on the beach that this was a bad idea. He KNEW he couldn't work with her. This task force is his chance at bringing his father's murderers to justice and he's going to screw it up because all he can think about is _this._

He looks around the office and there she is, leaning over Chin's desk in a white top, back in her casual clothes. He thought he'd be relieved when she got out of that dress, but he's not. Because, of course, the problem was not the dress; it's the girl.

He runs a hand down his face in frustration and gets up to leave. Maybe he'll call Cath, see if they can have dinner. Or something.

**···················**

She hands the dog over to an officer, tells him she'll stop by the station later to pick it up. Cute little dog, too. Not that she's thought about keeping it or anything. Not with her pitiful excuse for an apartment.

She really should look for a better place. Maybe she can talk to Steve about a raise? She obviously deserves one. No one else here is dressed like they should have a stage name.

She looks around the scene for Chin, realizing she'll need a ride back. One of the many drawbacks of arriving somewhere in the back of a van, pretending to be unconscious. Yeah. Not an experience she'd like to repeat anytime soon. She spots him talking to some people from HPD and starts making her way there but Steve calls her name, waving her over.

"Hey, Kono." He reaches in his pocket, throws her his car keys. She catches them easily, and turns to look at him, eyebrow arched in question. "You're riding back with me." He says in explanation. "We're leaving in a minute; I just need to finish up here."

"Thanks, boss." She smiles gratefully. She unlocks the car from a distance, walks over and opens the door to the passenger's side then stops, startled. Her casual clothes are on the seat, folded neatly. She looks back at Steve who's still talking to an EMT, then looks at the clothes again.

That was—thoughtful of him, she concedes reluctantly.

Damn it.

Now she can't bring herself to ask for a raise.

She slips into the backseat to change, thankful for the tinted windows. And even more thankful to get out of these clothes. I mean, seriously. Some of this stuff _sparkles_.

Steve gets in as she's pulling on her top. She tugs it down hurriedly and meets his eyes on the rearview mirror, tries an awkward smile.

"Hey. Thanks for bringing the clothes."

He looks at her for a beat, then nods. A true conversationalist, Steve is. She climbs over the console, half collapsing on the front seat, brushes a few stray curls off her face then looks over at Steve who's staring out the window, clenching his jaw. He seems kind of pissed. Uh oh. Is he one of those people who get super uptight about what you can do in their car? Like, no eating, no singing, no blowjobs? No climbing over the expensive leather seats?

That seems kind of harsh.

"You okay, boss?" She asks hesitantly, because it doesn't look like they're getting out of here anytime soon. Steve turns to look at her, distinctly unimpressed. Danny calls this his aneurysm face. Alright, jesus. She won't scratch up the leather, okay?

"You've still got the keys." He reminds her flatly.

Oh. Right.

**···················**

He's in the car with Catherine, driving back from a restaurant where they actually sat down and had dinner. Dinner not being a euphemism for anything else, for once. He's kind of impressed with himself. This is starting to feel like a relationship. Granted, one largely based on her misappropriating military assets for him, but a relationship nonetheless.

His phone rings and he glances at her apologetically before he puts it on speaker.

"Hey Boss." It's Kono.

He wishes she'd stop calling him boss. It's probably just her way of compartmentalizing but it makes him think about things he's better off not thinking about, especially while in a car with his sort of girlfriend.

Maybe he should have checked the caller ID.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but we got a hit on our victim's husband. He just used one of his credit cards to pay for a motel room in Oahu. Chin's going over there with Danny to check it out."

"Okay thanks, Kono. I'll get there as soon as I can."

"Great. Oh, and can you check your car? I think I left a bracelet in the back seat."

Steve glances at the back seat through the mirror and sure enough, there's a shiny bracelet there. She must have forgotten it when she was changing after that raid at the prostitution ring.

"Yeah, I see it." He says, and then sees Catherine freeze up from the corner of his eye. Why would that even—wait. Fuck. Does she think that he could—that he would ever—?

"Okay, thanks." Kono says, completely oblivious. "Sorry" she continues hesitantly, "I know you're weird about the car and stuff. I hope I didn't scratch up the seat—"

"It's fine." He cuts her off hurriedly, because judging by Catherine's expression this entire conversation has been taken alarmingly out of context. "I'll be there soon." He says again, hanging up.

He glances at Cath who's staring determinedly ahead, looking unfazed.

"Look." Steve starts in a tight voice, because he realizes that maybe this looks bad. Maybe. "That's not what—"

"I think you missed a turn." Catherine interrupts firmly.

For the record: Steve hasn't missed a turn.

Okay then. He can take a hint. They're not talking about it. Cue the uncomfortable silence.

**···················**

They call HPD to come tow the armored truck with the money out of the water and start heading back to their cars. Danny goes to hand him a towel, just like he promised, even though Steve wasn't going to hold him to it. But that's Danny for you, always endearingly over-concerned about his wellbeing.

Steve gives him an amused look to which Danny appears to take offence. "What? I know being a Super SEAL gives you all sorts of _special powers_", Danny scoffs ironically, "but does it make you immune to the common cold?" He raises his eyebrows in skepticism. "I don't think so."

Steve just looks at him. Danny frowns, still holding out the towel. "Look, there's a breeze today, which while generally a pleasant occurrence on this overheated nightmare of an island, is nonetheless not beneficial when you're soaking—would you just TAKE THE DAMN TOWEL?" He snaps finally.

Steve takes the towel, throwing his hands up in surrender. "No, you're right." He concedes agreeably.

"Thank you!" Danny exclaims, vindicated, patting down his tie.

"Hey, Kono!" Steve calls. Kono, who's walking a bit ahead of them, turns around just as he throws her the towel. She catches it, smiles at him widely.

"Thanks Boss." She says genuinely then turns back to catch up with Chin.

He can feel Danny gaping at him incredulously. "You're unbelievable, you know that?" He says in a high pitched voice. Steve just smiles at him, unrepentant.

"What? There's a _breeze._" He reasons, looking pretty pleased with himself.

"I don't know why I even bother sometimes." Danny mumbles resentfully.

He'll get over it.

**···················**


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own anything; all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).

**···················**

The man who killed his father is locked up, finally. He had to steal ten million dollars, had to watch it burn in front of his eyes. But Chin is safe now, and it was worth it. He'd do it again, no hesitation. It's just that he's not the only one in danger here.

Kono was there—she's part of this team, her cousin's life was on the line, so of course she was there. She's always there. But if this day proved anything, it's that he can't protect them. He can't protect _her._ Being a member of this task force makes her a target. And somehow the thought of Kono in any kind of danger has become unacceptable to him.

He doesn't even get how it happened. How did Kono become a whole separate _thing_ in his head? When did she become a part of his decision making process, get so high on his list of priorities?

This is what he considers before every mission now: not whether it will work or keep everyone safe, but whether this is the plan that makes sure Kono is least likely to get hurt.

He can't lead a team like this. He's going to get someone killed.

He looks around Danny's apartment, at his friends laughing and talking around the Christmas tree. He tries to imagine what he would have done if it had been Kono with that collar, if Kono had almost died because of his personal vendetta.

He can't.

**···················**

"Which brings me back to my point." Danny is saying. "Nobody is that perfect. It's suspicious, is all I'm saying."

"What are you even talking about?" Steve asks exasperated. Seriously. You'd think the guy would get tired of the sound of his own voice at some point.

Okay, so Steve's not exactly holding his breath for that one.

"What am I talking about—okay, you'd probably already know the answer to that question if you bothered to pay any attention to me. At all." Danny complains.

"Look, I'm sorry. I'm driving here, I have to concentrate." He argues unconvincingly.

"Oh, you're driving! That's original! What, are you suddenly incapable of multitasking? What's next, you forget how to walk and talk at the same time? Because, I mean, you see how that could be a problem." Danny mocks.

Steve wisely opts to stay quiet and Danny just sighs loudly.

"As I was saying", he starts again, "people, as a general rule, are flawed. Nobody can look like_ that_, kick ass and still understand things like frequency analysis. That's—I don't know—it disrupts the cosmic balance or something."

"Wow, Danny, I'm flattered." Steve deadpans, trying to keep a straight face. "I never thought you found me that attractive, to be honest."

"What? What are you—I'm talking about Kono, you jackass!" Danny half shouts, looking flushed.

What? It was an understandable assumption. Steve happens to know he fits that description perfectly, thank you very much.

"So what's wrong with Kono then?" He asks in a placating tone.

"Nothing!" Danny cries, getting more worked up, which Steve didn't think was possible. One of these days he'll turn a shade of red that has yet to be discovered. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with Kono. She has literally no flaws." He says, and it's clear he finds this personally affronting. "You see, flaws? Flaws are reassuring." Danny explains vehemently. "They're what makes us human. They're what separates us from _machines_."

"I'm sure Kono has flaws, Danny." Steve says mostly to get him to shut up. It doesn't quite work.

"Like what? Name one thing wrong with her. Seriously, go ahead."

There's a long pause.

Steve considers that he may not be most objective person to ask about this.

"Exactly." Danny concludes, satisfied that Steve can't come up with anything either. "She's, like, a humanoid robot or something. I'm telling you, Steve. That woman scares me."

**···················**

Steve has just finished explaining to Mary why it's not safe for her to stay in Hawaii while Koji Noshimuri is still a free man, when Kono knocks on his office door. He's exhausted and this day has been awful even by his—admittedly low—standards, so when he feels irrationally happy to see her he tries not to read too much into it.

It's just Kono, he reasons. Kono is pretty. He appreciates pretty people, from a purely aesthetic standpoint. Looking at pretty people makes him happy. In general.

He finds it sad that his attempts at self-delusion are failing to delude anyone, least of all himself.

"Hey boss, I'm heading out soon. You need any help with anything?" She asks politely, holding a manila folder of what looks like enlarged photos of the contents to his dad's toolbox.

"No, we're fine here. Are you finished with that?" He gestures to the file.

"Uh, I thought I'd take a copy of this with me, go over it. See if I can make sense of anything." She explains reasonably. Steve is not feeling very reasonable right now.

"You should just—I don't think that's a good idea." He says in a tight voice. He doesn't want her any more mixed up in this than she already is. "Just…leave it here, alright?" He manages to makes it sound like an order, even though it sounded more like a plea in his head.

She stares at him for a beat, perplexed, then she steps forward to leave the folder on his desk, wishes Mary a good night and walks out. Mary is looking at him like she can't believe they share DNA.

"I can't believe we're related." She says disgustedly. See? It's like he's psychic. A psychic ninja. God, he's so tired he's not making any sense.

"What is this, kindergarten?" Mary scolds. "You can't just pull on her pigtails, Steve. It doesn't work like that. God. How do you ever get laid?" She asks with genuine concern.

He rolls his eyes, doesn't bother explaining that this is how he keeps Kono safe. With Kono he's all about trying to keep a professional distance, mostly because he doesn't think he could persuade her to move to LA until this mess is over.

His sister, on the other hand? He manages to get her on a plane out the very same night.

**···················**

Kono is busy downloading some files on the smart table when she hears someone walk in. She looks up, sees a woman coming through the glass doors.

"Can I help you with something?" Chin asks coolly, turning towards the newcomer. Kono goes back to her files, satisfied that her cousin is taking care of it.

"I'm looking for Commander McGarrett." She hears the woman reply with equal composure just as Steve walks in.

"Cath." He greets her, sounding surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"Waiting to be introduced, apparently." Cath answers in a pleasant voice, looking at Chin and Kono pointedly.

"Right. Everyone, this is Lieutenant Catherine Rollins. Cath, this is Detective Chin Ho Kelly and Officer Kalakaua."

Lieutenant Rollins shakes Chin's hand, turns to her.

"Kono, right?" She asks uncertainly, because Steve—in his infinite wisdom—forgot to give the nice lieutenant her first name.

"That's right." Kono confirms, walking around the table to shake the woman's hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Kono." Catherine says, throwing a glance at Steve, her tone just a little bit off. It's almost like she means something else entirely. In fact—and feel free to call her paranoid—it kind of sounds like it's actually not a pleasure to meet her, at all.

Okay then.

Wouldn't be the first time someone's disliked her just on principle. And Catherine isn't even being rude about it, she just looks vaguely uncomfortable.

They all stand there awkwardly for a beat. Kono turns to glance at Chin, who has been watching everything with interest, eyebrows high on his forehead, looking about as puzzled as she feels. He gives her a questioning look and Kono just shrugs.

"Let's talk in my office." Steve suggests firmly, showing the lieutenant the way. You know, Kono does not consider herself an expert on the many (solemn) faces of Steve McGarrett, but she thinks he may look kind of displeased with the surprise visit. Chin waits until the door is closed behind them then turns to Kono curiously.

"What do you think that was about?"

"No idea, brah." Kono says honestly. "Must be something about my face."

She shrugs and goes back to work, even though she catches herself trying to peek into Steve's office a suspicious number of times.

**···················**


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own anything; all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Diana, who is always awesome, and to everyone who reviewed, because I'm sure you guys are always awesome too.

**···················**

When she walks into the break room the boys are watching what looks like an old cop show she's never seen before.

God. Will _her _haircut look that stupid twenty years from now? She hopes not.

No one seems particularly surprised she's never heard of it, which means it's either so horrifically bad that people tend to forget it existed, or so horribly ancient it was on before she was born. Or both.

She sits down to watch anyway, because she tries to be sensitive about how everyone she works with was born before dial up connections were even available. She figures they must already be irrevocably traumatized; they don't need her adding insult to injury. I mean, Danny still can't type more than twelve words a minute on his smart phone, poor guy.

Chin says he used to watch this as a kid. Honestly. She got The X files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Chin got this? Yeah, that's just four different kinds of sad.

"Oh, that one's pretty hot." She points out because really, what is she supposed to do, follow the fascinating plot lines?

"The dark one right?" Steve asks, like he already knows the answer.

"No, the blond." She replies just to be contrary, because Steve is an arrogant jackass. But yeah. She meant the other guy.

"That's me." He and Danny say at the same time.

Kono rolls her eyes and proceeds to ignore them.

**···················**

The house looks small and unkempt, the paint peeling off the walls in ugly patches, an unidentifiable plant dying a slow death on the front porch. They climb the steps to the door, ring the doorbell a couple of times and wait. They're hoping they can talk to the girl who lives here, see if she knows where her deadbeat brother is holed up.

Kono's leaning on one side of the door, Steve across from her, looking impatient. Steve looks impatient an impressive amount of time, in general, so much so that Kono suspects it's his default expression. After a while he frowns, knocks loudly.

Nothing. It's freakishly quiet.

Kono has time to think she really doesn't like this and then someone is shooting at them through the window. They get down, drawing their weapons as she spots a guy to her right, making a run for it. Steve sees him too, nods at her to go after him while he deals with whoever's trying to blow their heads off.

She takes off after him—she can tell this guy hasn't been to the gym in a while, he's not very fast. It's hardly a challenge, and she's almost annoyed because Steve is back there with no backup while she's here chasing this loser. She's almost on him by the end of the block when the guy suddenly stops and turns to face her, pulling out a gun.

"Drop it!" She shouts, but the guy must be stupid or something because he tries to fucking shoot her. Seriously. She aims for his right shoulder, fires. The guy grunts, stumbles backwards, but he doesn't drop his gun.

This is one determined motherfucker right here. He raises his arm shakily, probably trying to shoot her again, because clearly this guy has a pretty steep learning curve. She widens her stance, squares her shoulders and prepares to shoot—but the guy is going down; the gun clatters to the sidewalk, blood splattering all over the place.

Steve is right behind her, looking grim, which is probably what you're supposed to look like when you've just shot someone in the head.

She stares at him wide eyed for a bit.

"You okay, boss?" She asks stupidly, because it's the first thing that comes to mind.

"HPD will be here any minute." He says flatly, putting away his weapon. "Stay here, okay? I'll wait back at the house." He explains tersely, not looking at her.

He walks away, and she's still trying to understand what the hell is going on.

**···················**

Turns out it was the sister shooting at them with a shotgun; Steve had to take her out. Kono learns this by eavesdropping on his conversation with the officers that arrive on the scene, since Steve has apparently decided to stop talking to her.

Seriously.

They take his car back to HQ and he doesn't say a word on the entire drive there. He parks the car and she unfastens her seatbelt, reaching for the handle, when he decides to speak.

"You almost got yourself killed back there."

I'm sorry, what?

"What?"

"Don't fucking act like you don't know what I'm talking about, Kono." He snaps. "That guy was going to shoot you, and you _hesitated_." He shouts.

He's literally shouting at her right now and all she can do is gape at him, because this may actually be the most ridiculous thing she's ever heard. It's probably even more ridiculous than the thought of Chin taking all that money.

"Boss, I had him." She says with certainty, but Steve is not in a listening mood right now.

"It didn't look like you had him, Kono. You want to know what it looked like? It looked like _a cop with a death wish_." He's still shouting.

"I was seconds away from shooting him!" She defends.

"You would be DEAD right now, do you realize that? DEAD."

She stares at him incredulously, trying to understand what the fuck is going on. She knows she had that guy. She _knows_ it. So why is Steve freaking out?

Steve runs a hand over his face in frustration, trying to calm down. She just sits there, because she doesn't know what the fuck his problem is and talking doesn't seem to help much.

They sit there in silence for about ten minutes before she runs out of patience.

"I don't know what you want me to say, Boss."

Steve is looking straight ahead at the empty parking lot, still tense.

"Nothing." He says eventually. "I don't want you to say anything."

**···················**

He can't sleep that night so he goes for a swim. He's gone over it a thousand times in his head, he's read Kono's report, but he still doesn't know what the fuck happened. Kono is a good cop, he reasons. He knows he can trust her; she wouldn't have just let someone shoot her, for god's sake. It sounds preposterous to even think about it.

Well. It sounds preposterous _now_. He had no problem yelling about it at Kono earlier.

He tries again to remember what happened, but everything about this morning seems blurry, out of focus. All he remembers is the panic, an almost paralyzing terror, because someone was pointing a gun at her and he wasn't close enough to jump in front of the bullet. And he's so fucking mad at himself, because this is all he could think about when he should have been calmly assessing the situation. It was reckless and stupid.

He overreacted. And someone's head got blown off.

Not exactly his proudest moment.

**···················**

She goes out that night and gets the exact right amount of drunk: not enough to forget why she's drinking, just enough to no longer care. It's a laid back sort of place, no obnoxiously loud music or people plastered against each other on the dance floor. It's nice. Kelly's with her, because she figured getting wasted by herself was not only deeply pathetic but also potentially stupid.

They're taking a cab home, don't worry.

She's on her third drink when Kelly decides to pry into the reason for having this outing on a weekday, when they both have to work next morning.

"Steve's mad at me." Kono admits sullenly. It doesn't really clear things up for Kelly, because she can't even explain why he was so angry at her exactly, but whatever.

At least now she's talked about it to someone. Isn't that what you're supposed to do? Talk about your feelings and shit? All the cool kids are doing it. I mean, maybe. Possibly. Does she even know any cool kids? She can't think of any right now.

She waves the bartender over for a refill. This will be her fourth. Fourth drink, not fourth refill. Wait-What was she talking about again?

...

You know, this might be her fifth drink after all.

**···················**


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own anything; all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).

**···················**

"This isn't working." Steve says resolutely, as if they'd been in the middle of a conversation, when this is in fact the first time he's talked to her all day.

Kono's in his office dropping off a report and was kind of hoping to get out of there before he decided to start yelling again, but apparently that ship has already sailed. It may even have sunk, judging by his tone of voice. In fact, you know what? That ship was probably the Titanic—she never even stood a chance. She bites back a sigh, looks at him.

"What's not working?" She prompts impatiently. Steve clenches his jaw, picks up a file and slaps it down on the table, turning it around for her to read. She's starting to get a bad feeling about this but she walks closer, opens it.

No. No, no, no, not a chance in hell.

Her stomach drops, and she has to concentrate to keep her hands from shaking.

"What is this?" She says slowly, incredulous.

"You're being reassigned." Steve says tonelessly.

This is crazy. It's literally insane. Why would he—?

"Why?" She asks. Her voice breaks, and she hates herself for it. "Is this about yesterday?" She asks again, trying to understand. He looks angry. What did she do to make him so angry? She is good at her job, she does all the grunt work, every menial, tedious task, all the fucking paperwork and she _never_ complains, what—what the hell—

She is actually going to cry. Oh my god, this is so humiliating. FUCK.

"I can't work like this." Steve says simply, like that explains anything.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" She snaps, because it's either that or crying and she is not fucking crying right now, no way. No fucking way, brah.

"I'm sorry." Steve is saying, even though he doesn't sound sorry at all. "I should have known it wouldn't work, but I guess I thought it wouldn't be a problem if I—"

"Is this about _Australia_?" She says, horrified. "You said you were fine with it, you asked me to join this task force, you gave me a fucking back up gun for my graduation!"

"It's not about—" Steve tries, getting up and walking around his desk. Kono takes a step back, furious, and there's a good chance she'll hit him if he tries to come any closer. He doesn't.

"What, did your _girlfriend_ find out?" She asks spitefully. "Did she find out you fucked me, is that what this is about?"

"Listen to me!" Steve interrupts loudly. "This is me trying to do what's best for this team, alright? I have a responsibility to keep everyone safe, and I can't do it when I'm always worrying about _you_."

"I'm part of this team too, Steve, however inconvenient that may be for you. And I am more than capable of taking care of myself."

"That's not what I meant." He says, frustrated. Seriously, he's frustrated because she didn't just smile and nod and start packing up her things like a good little minion. "Look, this is what I'm talking about. We have a case we should be working on, and I'm—we're fighting in the middle of the office." He gestures around, like he's making a point, like they have fights about him trying to reassign her every freaking day and it's getting counterproductive.

"I've been nothing but professional." She says in a tight voice, trying not to yell because that would only prove his point. "You know it's not a problem for me."

"It's a problem _for me_." Steve responds with finality.

You know what? That would almost be sort of flattering, if it wasn't for the fact he's trying to REASSIGN HER.

Kono stares at him in disbelief for a minute, wondering if he actually thinks she'll go along with this. She shakes her head, closes the file with the reassignment request she's been holding on to, puts it back down on his desk. She looks at him again, smiles mockingly.

"You can't reassign me because you find me _distracting_, Steve. That's not how it works."

Steve looks like he wants to answer that yes, it does work that way, and he calls all the shots here, 5-0 is not a democracy thankyouverymuch, but someone clears their throat from the doorway.

"You guys need some privacy?" Danny asks, eyebrows raised. "Cause I can come back later. It's nothing too urgent just, you know, a murder investigation."

**···················**

Steve is driving Danny's car, because it pisses Danny off and that's always fun on a bad day. It's pretty much the most fun Steve can have with his clothes on.

Okay, that came out wrong. He meant, like, unless he's swimming or…Never mind.

So anyway, he's driving and trying to ignore the fact that Danny is obviously working up to addressing the Kono thing. Because it's a thing now, an actual _thing_, with yelling and—if Danny heard anything—witnesses.

He's hoping if he drives fast enough they can skip this particular fight. Just this once. They can fight over something else instead. Maybe he'll bring up Rachel, see how that's going.

You know, that plan isn't half bad, actually.

"So, are you gonna tell me what's going on?" Danny says casually. Yeah, he should have thought of the Rachel thing sooner.

"What's going on with what?" Steve asks, because there is still a chance this is about something else entirely. It's like the Schrödinger's cat thing; until you open the box, it can go either way. Right?

"Gee, Steve, I don't know." Danny drawls sarcastically. "Anything exciting happen today, anything you feel your partner should be made aware of? Did they announce a Rambo remake? Did Gun and Ammo do a piece on man-portable missiles? Did you try to get Kono reassigned?" He asks in a voice that gets progressively louder until he's sort of yelling. "Which of these things am I most likely to be referring to?"

So, okay, the cat's pretty much out of the bag. And now he's mixing metaphors.

"I don't want to talk about it." Steve says definitively, which is guy talk for back the hell off.

"So I'm supposed to just ignore this?" Danny persists, going against time honored traditions that govern male interaction and possibly his survival instinct. "You realize this affects the whole team, right? This isn't a decision you can make by yourself."

"Can we drop this?" He tries tiredly, because he is just not in a mood for one of Danny's rants.

"No, Steven, we can't. We can't just drop this. We need to have a conversation about it, so that someone can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that you, my friend, are _insane_. You are a certified crazy person." Danny assures him emphatically.

"You don't know what you're talking about Danny." Steve warns, clenching his jaw.

"Well, excuse me, _your highness_, but last time I checked Kono was a valued member of this task force, with a screw-up rate significantly lower than your own, Mr. Let's blow up doors with grenades I keep handy at all times. So you'll forgive me for thinking there must be something actually _pathologically_ wrong with you when you tell me you want to kick her off the team." He pauses dramatically to let this sink in. "So once again Steve I ask: would you like to tell me what the hell is going on?"

There's a brief silence while Steve tries to determine his chances of getting out of this. It's not looking good.

"How's Rachel doing these days?" He asks finally, blatantly deflecting. He sees Danny tense up in his peripheral vision and feels like a jerk for bringing it up, but at least they're no longer talking about Kono. He can make it up to Danny later, probably by bribing him with astonishingly unhealthy food.

**···················**

She goes back to her desk, trying to concentrate on the murder case even though she feels like murdering someone herself. But she has to stay professional, for all the good it's done her so far. Steve didn't really elaborate on his reasons for wanting her off the team, but (from what Kono understands after that train wreck of a conversation) this is personal.

She thought it was working out fine, she thought they'd even moved past the awkwardness of the first few months. She's been polite and distantly friendly and he's been polite and distantly friendly right back and she genuinely thought that was their thing now. He never said anything to indicate something was off, so this is news to her.

"Everything okay, cuz?" Chin asks concerned. She doesn't know what her fight with Steve looked like to him. It must have been obvious it wasn't a very friendly conversation, at the very least.

Not even distantly friendly.

"Yeah." She mutters unconvincingly then opens a file in a determined effort to look busy.

Chin takes the hint and leaves her alone.

**···················**


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own anything; all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).

**···················**

The bar is crowded tonight, and she almost regrets coming, even though it was out of her hands. Kelly called earlier and she could tell something was wrong not two sentences into their conversation, so she decided she was dragging Kono out for drinks. Second time this week. This is starting to feel like a pattern, and not the good kind.

"Seriously, I'm worried." Kelly's saying, leaning forward on the table so she doesn't have to shout. Also, because she's had one too many drinks and sitting up straight is quickly becoming a challenge. "It's not like you to be this off without a reason. Is there something wrong? Is it work?"

Kono shrugs casually. "Steve's still being weird." She says vaguely because how would she even begin to explain the complete absurdity of Steve's behavior and have it make sense? Not possible.

Well. Maybe if she mentions the Australia thing, which she doesn't want to do.

"Maybe he just had a bad week." Kelly suggests hopefully, waving her hand in half drunk dismissal. "It probably has nothing to do with you. Maybe he broke up with his girlfriend or something. Cut the guy some slack." She adds, seeming to warm up to her theory.

Kono tries to snort in amusement and, predictably, almost chokes on her drink. "Right." She says sarcastically. "That would explain it."

"What? It's a valid assumption." Kelly defends with a laugh, trying to shake her out of her bad mood. "Lack of sex can seriously impair your judgment. I've seen studies. You should look it up."

Kono just shakes her head in amusement. "I'll take your word for it."

"In fact…" Kelly starts in a pointed tone, "…you know what would make your week better?" She raises an eyebrow and shoots Kono a look that promises she won't like whatever's coming next.

"Do I even _want_ to know?" Kono asks rhetorically. Kelly doesn't bother to pretend she's listening.

"Sex." Kelly announces gleefully. "Sex will most certainly turn this week around."

"No." Kono answers in what she likes to think is a stern tone of voice.

"Yes." Kelly insists, rather unconvincingly. "This is me staging an intervention. Trust me, you need to get laid."

"No, thanks." Kono repeats unmoved.

"I'm ignoring your argument because you don't have one and advising you to look around for someone you don't mind going home with, because that's just the kind of friend that I am." She says in a sing song voice.

"Yeah, the annoying kind." Kono huffs in exasperation, even though Kelly is sort of hilariously ridiculous when she's tipsy.

"Come on, no strings attached naked fun. How can this not appeal to you? Do you not have a pulse?" Kelly wonders philosophically, looking around as if sizing up candidates. Okay. This might be a good time to cut her off.

"Okay." Kono says cheerfully, taking Kelly's drink out of her hand and setting it down on the other end of the table. "I'll let you in on a secret." She continues absent mindedly, reaching for her wallet to settle their tab. She grabs a couple of twenties, looks back at Kelly who's moved on to Kono's drink without even blinking.

"What's that?" Kelly asks, apparently still able to keep up with the conversation. Always a good sign. Maybe Kono won't have to actually carry her home.

"No strings attached naked fun? Can come back to bite you in the ass, brah." Kono assures her, speaking from personal experience. Kelly cringes in exaggerated sympathy, getting up on unsteady feet as Kono watches carefully in case she needs to break her fall.

"Poor Kono." Kelly exclaims then starts to frown. "Wait, are we talking about STDs here?"

"What? No!" Kono denies vehemently. Ewww.

Kelly almost crashes into a waitress and Kono rushes to steady her. Her friend starts apologizing profusely, claiming she's not even that drunk really, while Kono idly wonders how she's the one who ended up holding Kelly upright and not the other way around.

**···················**

She's running a background check on some people, looking for anything remotely suspicious because they don't really have any leads yet. It's been a few days and Steve hasn't mentioned their fight again, but she's sure he hasn't forgotten about it—he's practically the most stubborn person she knows. He'll bring it up again sooner rather than later. So far he's only talked to her to ask her to do things, which is actually pretty much how they always interact, so no one has commented on it.

Danny walks in and asks for an update; she tells him what she has so far, which is basically nothing. She hopes Chin and Steve are having better luck or this case could drag on for a while and she's fast approaching a point where she doubts she could tell you what her bed looks like. In fact, she's not at all certain she could pick her bed out of a police line-up.

Danny's still hovering so she looks at him questioningly.

"Hey listen." He says seriously. "You know you can talk to me, right?"

Kono just raises an eyebrow, perplexed. "Right." She says slowly, because she's been under the impression that her ability to form sentences addressed to Danny was pretty self evident.

"Look, I tried to get Steve to talk about it and—I don't have to tell you, you've met the guy—it was literally like pulling teeth. I mean, seriously, I've had more fun on trips to the dentist. Anyway, my point is, I'm not sure what's going on exactly, but if you need anything, I'm here alright?"

"Thanks Danny." She says honestly. Danny's nice and all, but she doubts there's much he can do if Steve is determined to go through with this.

"Sure." He says easily. "I'm sure it's the heat finally getting to him, or something. Don't worry, okay? You're not getting rid of us that easily."

Kono smiles teasingly. "Because then you might actually have to do your own paperwork, right?"

"Oh, is that a joke? Is the rookie trying to be funny? Because I promise you, you are not a funny person, my friend." He says with conviction, walking back to his desk and leaving Kono to glare at his back.

She doesn't throw the stapler at his head, but it's an effort.

"Oh please." She mumbles to herself, looking back at her computer screen. "I'm hilarious."

**···················**

The cleaner is knocked out when the guys finally get there, and Kono is standing in the middle of the room, surveying the damage. The double doors are hanging off their hinges, glass partition broken, but Kono somehow managed to end up without a scratch.

"You know there might be a few things I can teach you," Chin says, "but I think you got the whole ass kicking thing down." He sounds kind of proud. Yeah. She _is_ pretty bad ass.

She grins and runs a hand through her hair to get it out of her face.

"So you thought it was a good idea to take on a trained assassin without backup?" Steve says sharply, and Kono freezes because whatever the hell's going on with Steve, he's never brought it up in public or in front of her cousin before. As if to prove her point, Chin turns around in slow motion to look at Steve in surprise.

She might be imagining the slow motion part.

"You thought you'd come in, save the day? You thought that would prove something?" Steve's saying, voice strained.

"I knew you guys were on your way, Boss. I just got here first." Kono explains calmly, hands on her hips, as if Steve's being perfectly reasonable. It won't help much if she loses her cool right now.

"You think this was smart, Kono? You think it was brave?" He demands hotly, not appearing to hear her. "No, all you did was put yourself in danger. Again."

"Last time I checked it was part of the job description." She retorts, because she's right and he's wrong and the only reason she's not shouting that from a rooftop is the fact that he's her boss and he's already looking for any excuse to get rid of her.

"So is following orders!" Steve says, taking a couple of steps towards her but Chin has apparently decided that's enough because he puts a hand on Steve's arm in warning.

"Steve." He says firmly, causing Steve to turn to look at him stonily. But her cousin is a hard man to intimidate; they just stare at each other for a while, not blinking, until Steve seems to relax. Then Chin just drops his arm and steps back, as if nothing happened.

Men are so weird.

Steve says something about calling someone and walks out.

"You need me to talk to him?" Chin asks, watching her reaction carefully.

"It's fine." She says immediately because the only way for this to be more humiliating is for her cousin to get involved. "I'll take care of it."

And she will. Somehow.

**···················**


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own anything; all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).

A/N: So, this story will be about 13 chapters. Thanks as always to Diana and to everyone who reviewed.

**···················**

She finds him in the locker room, changing his shirt for the fifteenth time today probably, what with his OCD tendencies and propensity for getting blood all over his clothes. Seriously, laundry day must be hell in the McGarrett household.

But that's not why she's here.

"You know you were out of line today, right?" She asks simply, leaning against the locker next to his, arms crossed. Steve appears to ignore her. "You can't talk to me like that. If you want to yell at me that's fine, if that's how you get off. But acting that way in front of Chin, in front of anyone for that matter, is unacceptable."

Steve slams his locker shut violently and turns to look at her, eyes dark. "You think that was out of line? I am so far past the line I can't even see it anymore, Kono." He shouts, looking like he desperately wants to convince her of this. "So do us both a favor and sign that damn form before I lose my fucking mind."

"Why is it you can't work with me anymore, Steve?" Kono demands. "Because it's never been a problem until one day you decided what? That I _distract_ you, suddenly?" She says in a tone that makes it clear she thinks that's ridiculous.

"You always distract me." Steve says in a rough voice, like he's admitting to something awful.

"Okay, then." Kono says, getting increasingly more pissed off. "Fine. I distract you. Let's see how everyone reacts when that's the reason you give for kicking me off the team. I mean, it sure doesn't sound too good, Steve. It doesn't sound very _professional_." She says bitingly, completely out of patience with this bullshit.

"In fact," she adds leaning a bit closer, "it kind of sounds like your problem with me is of a distinctly _personal_ nature. Boss." She's close enough to see his breath catch, his eyes dropping to her mouth.

You know, maybe Kelly was right. She doesn't know if he broke it off with his girlfriend or what, but the man is clearly frustrated. She steps closer so she's almost pressed up against him and his hand shoots up to grab her arm, slamming her back to the locker as if to ward her off.

"You don't want to play this game, Kono." He says harshly, fingers digging into her arms to hold her in place, but you know what? She kind of does. She looks at him steadily, waiting, until he uses his hold on her arm to tug her closer, starts to lean down.

He's going to kiss her.

"Is this out of line too?" He asks, their lips almost touching, his hand burning against the skin of her back, the other hesitating on the buttons of her jeans.

"Stop talking." She breathes out, annoyed because why does everything have to be about his control issues, and then he kisses her, slow and thorough, completely unhurried.

She's almost forgotten this about him, how he likes to take his time with everything, how every kiss feels like a promise of things to come. He undresses her and she knows the door is unlocked, anyone could come in and it's completely terrifying but she can't bring herself to mention it. He works himself inside her, hands bruising on her hips and he's taking too long. She's trembling, she's literally trembling—but she's not eighteen anymore and he doesn't have all the power here. She bites at his bottom lip, drags her nails down his chest, licks and kisses a path down his throat until he grunts and gives in, picks up his pace.

It's still painfully intimate. The lights are too bright and she can see every change of expression, every emotion that passes through his eyes, the contrast of their skin tones. The locker room's so quiet their every breath sounds jarringly loud and she tries to bite back her moans, because how mortifying would it be if they get caught like this, but Steve doesn't like that, apparently. He tugs on her hair sharply and moves harder, until she's making desperate embarrassing sounds with each thrust, her back knocking against the lockers loudly and oh my freaking god is this a bad time to find out this room has an echo.

You know, if this is all she had to do to stay on the team, he should have told her sooner.

**···················**

She's watching Law and Order reruns and eating popcorn when someone rings the doorbell. That's…odd. It's half past ten. It's probably just Chin though. She sets the bowl of popcorn down on the coffee table and gets up, wiping her hands on her shorts because she forgot to buy napkins last time she went grocery shopping and the doorbell rings again and she panics and she's disgusting, okay? Deal with it.

She walks over to look through the peep hole and it's Steve, which is weird because it's kind of late and also, what is he even doing here? She just saw him, like, an hour ago. Oh god, do they have a new case? Because they just closed the kidnapping thing and she hasn't even gotten started on the paperwork.

"You realize I can tell you're standing on the other side of the door, right?" Steve says in a muffled voice, obnoxious as usual. She rolls her eyes and opens the door.

"Hey Boss."

"Will you ever stop calling me that?" He asks, all frowny and annoyed. No hello or anything. To be perfectly fair though, he's never explicitly told her to stop doing it—all she had so far was the vague impression he finds the title distasteful.

"Chin calls you Boss, too." She points out helpfully, leaning against the door jamb.

"Yeah, well, it sounds a lot more disturbing when _you_ say it." Steve explains, frowning still. Kono just raises an eyebrow and smirks, because now that she knows it bothers him there's a strong possibility she may never use his name again. He probably realizes his mistake, because he clenches his jaw and changes the subject.

"So can I come in, or are you going to make me stand here all night?"

Kono raises her arms up in her best you-don't-have-to-shoot-me-I'll-cooperate gesture and moves back to let him in. She closes the door behind them, turns around to watch him size up her living room critically.

"It's alarmingly small." She announces, hoping to get that out of the way. "Chin claims he gets claustrophobic in here, and I'm pretty sure it's smaller than some people's closets."

"No, it's cute." He says simply. She can't really tell if he's lying. Whatever. He walks to her tiny couch and half collapses on it, taking up so much space it looks ridiculous, like he's out of scale.

"Why are you here again?" Kono asks suspiciously. Surely if they had a case he'd have mentioned it by now. Steve just shrugs, picks up her remote and turns up the volume a bit.

"This show any good?" He asks, absent-mindedly reaching for some popcorn. She doesn't even know what she should address first; the fact that Steve just showed up to watch TV and eat her popcorn, or the fact that he's never seen Law and Order before.

She kicks his leg aside to make room for her on the couch and grabs the bowl of popcorn, holding it away from him protectively.

"Have you been living under a rock or something, Boss? This show has been on for a decade."

**···················**

He's driving to HQ and Danny is being quiet. This is unsettling in many ways, mostly because Steve recognizes this particular brand of quiet and it always means Danny is lulling him into a false sense of security, waiting for the perfect moment to strike like a carnivorous animal in the metaphors he's so fond of.

"So." Danny starts in a neutral tone. "I noticed you called in a favor to do that Super Seal satellite tracking thing."

Right. So that's what the creepy silence was about.

"And I also noticed, through in no way eavesdropping on the conversation you decided to have right in front of me, that it wasn't the lovely Lt. Rollins you were talking to." Here Danny pauses, appearing to wait for some sort of reaction. He should really know Steve better by now—there is no reaction.

"So what happened?" Danny asks plainly, deciding to stop beating around the bush.

Steve shrugs. "Didn't work out." He explains. Danny waits for a beat, like he's expecting him to elaborate. Because Steve is all about talking things to death.

"That's it, just didn't work out?" Danny is not convinced. "You've been seeing this person for how long now? Six years?"

"Off and on." Steve clarifies.

"Wow. Okay. I can see you're totally crushed about this." Danny infers sarcastically. "Seriously, six years and all you can say is _it didn't work out_? No wonder she dumped your sorry ass."

Well that's just insulting.

"Why would you assume she's the one who broke it off?" Steve questions, honestly perplexed.

"Oh ho! Great, he's offended. I've offended you. _I'm sorry_." He says insincerely, in a patronizing tone. "If you're saying you broke it off, I believe you. It's just—you mean to tell me you suddenly decided to end a six year relationship for no discernible reason?"

"I had reasons, okay?" Steve snaps defensively. "They're just none of your business." He adds with a shrug, even though Danny frequently likes to argue that he has a right to know about these things, as his _partner _(Steve severely doubts that word means what Danny thinks it means).

"Is this why you've been so off your game the past few weeks? All snappish and moody and the whole thing with Kono?" Danny asks, sounding very self-satisfied for figuring it all out.

"…Right." He nods, playing along and hoping they can go back to the creepy silence.

Someone must take pity on him because it works.

**···················**


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own anything; all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).

A/N: Special thanks to Diana, as always, and to fione.s.t who caught the BSG reference. BSG is one of the smartest most amazing TV shows ever and everyone should watch it. Start with the miniseries, you'll be hooked by the end of it.

**···················**

Kono is being productive and multitasking and generally doing stuff recommended in self-help books. Not that she owns any. Not that there's anything wrong with owning any—she'll just shut up now.

She's on the phone with Kelly, who's in some boring doctor conference in LA. She's also trying to cook dinner instead of ordering in for once, while throwing out unidentifiable food shaped things that have come to die in her fridge. She probably should have worn gloves for the last one, but it's too late now. She'll just empty a bottle of antibacterial soap on her hands later. If she remembered to buy such a bottle on her last shopping trip. Which, let's face it, she probably didn't.

It's sort of terrifying how much she sucks at living alone.

Kelly is just finishing a ten minute rant about her arch nemesis Maya, who is in fact a perfectly nice pediatrician from what Kono could gather the few times she's met her, and decides to let Kono speak for a while.

"So what happened with your boss?" She asks innocently. Kono, who is far from innocent on the subject, loses her grip on a bag of what might have been lettuce at some point and watches it fall to the floor with a solid thump. She's pretty sure vegetables are not supposed to make that sound.

"…Nothing." She answers in a squeaky voice. The thing you have to know is: Kono is a terrible liar. She's good at undercover work, where there's a plan and someone prepared to barge in if she screws up, but spur of the moment off-the-cuff lying? Not her thing.

"Is he still mad at you?" Kelly insists. Kono allows herself to think about it for a second. Steve doesn't seem mad at her. She thought things might get awkward again after the locker room thing, but nope. Everything's fine. Steve is friendly, even. And pleasant.

"Not that I can tell." She admits honestly, picking up the lettuce with the tips of her fingers and throwing it in the trash.

"See? He was probably just having a bad week. Did you talk about it? Did he apologize?"

"I don't think I should bring it up now that things are normal again." Kono confesses ruefully.

"You're probably right." Kelly agrees, just as someone knocks on Kono's door. She promises to call back later and hangs up, hurrying to check who it is.

It's Steve.

Is this a thing now? He just stops by, unannounced, to hang out?

"Hey Boss." She greets him hesitantly, trying not to frown because her mother taught her better. Steve just rolls his eyes and pushes past her, then comes to a stop so abruptly she runs into his back. Ouch.

"Uh, why is there smoke coming out of your kitchen?"

OH SHIT.

Kono shoves past him to run to the kitchen, takes the pot off the stove and then dumps it in the sink, wondering what on earth made her think she could suddenly cook after twenty odd years of failing at it spectacularly.

She opens a window, waving her hands around to get rid of the smoke while Steve comes to stand there, leaning against the door and surveying the scene with bemusement.

"So I guess we're ordering in?" He asks, smiling widely. He's never going to let this go, is he? He'll just mock her until the end of time, in front of as many people as possible.

"Who invited you, anyway?" She frowns at him crossly.

"Pizza it is." He declares without missing a beat, getting out his phone and proceeding to order for both of them.

The nerve of this guy, really.

**···················**

She's by the supercomputer table thingy she has affectionately named Fred (Futuristic Ridiculously Extraneous Device?), waiting around while it runs a partial print through the database, when Steve and Danny walk in, in the middle of one of their usual disputes.

"You realize it's a gala, right?" Steve is saying. "Like, a formal event where nothing interesting ever happens."

"Yes, thank you Steven, I happen to know what a gala is. There's free champagne and beautiful women, both notably absent from my life as of late. And your invitation does clearly state _plus one_."

"I'm pretty sure they mean a date, Danny."

"Hey, I'll have you know I'm a very cheap date. I tell you what, you don't even have to pick me up, I'll meet you there."

Kono shakes her head tiredly because really, all the shameless flirting can get annoying on an everyday basis.

"You know it's mostly old people talking about how rich they are, right?" She intervenes, not quite sure what the allure is. But it may not even be about the gala—Danny may just be arguing out of habit. She can never tell with these guys.

"No, you see, _that_? That's just your cynicism talking. You should work on that. Try thinking happy thoughts a few times a day, it might help." Danny advises dismissively, in a tone that, for the record, is pretty sarcastic for someone dissing on cynics.

"Whatever, brah. You couldn't pay me to go to these things, is all I'm saying." Kono states, shaking her head in emphatic denial.

"Actually…" Steve jumps in "…you're going with me."

Kono looks up at him stupidly, has a weird moment when she doesn't know if he's talking to her or Danny.

"Who, me?" She cries doubtfully, looking around as if expecting someone to start laughing at how improbable an idea that is.

"You're taking _Kono_?" Danny exclaims loudly, looking a bit offended. And then he clutches a hand over his heart, at which point he just looks like someone run over his puppy. She swears Danny's such a drama queen sometimes.

"I need a plus one, right?" Steve shrugs casually, turning to look at her. "It's this Friday, I'll pick you up at eight." He announces, walking towards his office. "Wear something pretty, okay?" He smirks at her then closes the door behind him, leaving her gaping like a fish.

I mean, was that an order? Can he order her to go on a date with him? It seems rather unlikely. Is it even a date? It's probably not a date. He probably just wanted Danny to get off his case. She glances back at Danny to see him frowning at her.

"Hey, don't look at me, brah." She throws up her hands in surrender. "It's your fault I got dragged into this."

"Oh, please." Danny narrows his eyes, hands on his waist. "I see your devious plan. You know who you are? You, my friend, are Yoko Ono, trying to break up the Beatles. Next thing I know, Steve is driving your car everywhere and I'm stuck with all the paperwork. Like that movie with Jamie Lee Curtis where they switched bodies."

Kono stares at him worriedly for a minute, eyes wide.

"You know you're not making any sense, right?"

He just huffs and walks off.

**···················**

Chin is driving again. She's tried to explain that she won't even go past the speed limit unless they have to chase someone, but Chin insists it's the only way he's ever getting in the car again. Whatever. She is an excellent driver, she'll have you know.

"So you're going to the gala with Steve?" Chin asks, pretty much out of the blue. Danny, you tattletale.

"That's what they tell me." She says flippantly, because it's a thousand degrees out and she's too bored to try to be mature about this and watch her words and shit.

Chin's face doesn't give anything away, but if Kono had a super power it would be the ability to read her cousin's micro expressions, so she knows he didn't like her answer.

"Is that a good idea?" He asks, in his perpetually calm voice.

"Not particularly." She admits honestly. There's a pause. Chin seems to be considering this, while Kono fiddles restlessly with the radio. She finds some local station, a hopelessly boring interview of some sort, and leaves it on in hopes it will put Chin in a coma or something and they'll forget this conversation ever happened.

"Is there something going on with you and Steve, cuz?" Chin says seriously, after a five minute silence that has allowed her to hope.

What is this, radical honesty day? What happened to sensible social lies, like—say—pretending you've never slept with your boss who also happens to be your cousin's close friend? What happened to that, huh? Come on, people. Lies of omission are the glue that holds this society together.

So, is something going on with her and Steve? Who the fuck knows, really? They had sex, once. Maybe twice, depending on when you start counting. And Steve has apparently developed a habit of stopping by her house to watch TV and try to teach her how to cook, because it's a basic survival skill yada yada yada and her cluelessness offends him.

How does she even begin to explain this mess to Chin?

"I have no idea." She says finally, and it's even kind of true. So there.

**···················**


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own anything; all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to Diana (cm757) and everyone who's reading this, but especially the awesome people who reviewed.

**···················**

The most you can say about the gala is it's not as boring as Kono expected it to be. Steve doesn't seem intent on socializing, but apparently he's important enough that people come up to him instead of the other way around.

Everyone mostly assumes they're a couple, which may have something to do with the fact he brought her along as his date. Kono smiles calmly and corrects them, explaining that Steve was just too lazy to try to get a real date to this thing. She's not sure anyone believes her, especially after she catches Steve looking at her with a weird half smile that seems to imply she's being ridiculous. Because apparently not wanting people to think she's sleeping with her boss is a ridiculous thing to ask for.

I mean, she's slept with him _twice_. And the first time doesn't even count because he wasn't her boss yet. Anyway, that's not a pattern of behavior and she shouldn't be judged on it. Right?

The chief of police comes by to greet Steve and—who knows—compare their shooting average or whatever it is men think constitutes as small talk. She's never been officially introduced to the guy but she has seen him around the precinct on occasion. He nods at her in acknowledgment, studying her face like he's trying to place her.

"You might remember Officer Kalakaua." Steve says politely, nudging her forward with a hand on her back.

The chief's smile doesn't falter but Kono can see the set of his shoulders stiffen, his eyes go cold. Oh joy. He must recognize the family name.

"Of course. Officer Kalakaua, I heard you'd been working with Five-O." He says tightly, looking between her and Steve in a way that is clearly meant to convey disapproval.

"You two make a lovely couple." He remarks drily, before excusing himself and walking off.

Steve's hand tightens around her wrist warningly, which is how she realizes she's been clenching her fists. She takes a deep breath and relaxes her hands, and Steve starts rubbing small circles on her open palm, which is not really helping with anything.

**···················**

It's almost one am and Steve is driving her home. She's tired and her jaw aches from all the fake smiling, she's not even kidding. She's kicked off her shoes, hoping she's not breaking any of Steve's cardinal rules about what you can do in his car even though she strongly suspects she is. Well, you know what they say; better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

You'd be on her side too if you'd spent the last five hours of your life in high heels.

"You know this evening was pointlessly disastrous, right?" She asks sleepily, glancing over at Steve to confirm that yep, he still looks like he should be on the cover of GQ after five hours of political schmoozing. She tries to catch a glance of herself in the mirror, pretty sure she looks a fright.

"What are you talking about? I had a great time." He says matter-of-factly as they pull up at her house.

"Yeah, okay." She mumbles dismissively, trying to wrap this up so she can get to bed. Tomorrow's her day off and she's planning on sleeping in until noon. "Goodnight, Boss." She nods, putting on her shoes and reaching for the handle.

"Night, babe."

Kono opens the door and goes to step out. Then turns to look back at him.

"Did you say something?" She asks dubiously. She's really tired, you see, and there's a good chance she's imagining things.

"Uh…goodnight?" He ventures, furrowing his brow. But Kono is not fooled.

"No." She says slowly, dragging out the word and closing the car door again, because she feels like this conversation may require her to do some yelling and she doesn't want to wake up her neighbors. "You called me babe. I'm pretty sure that happened." She accuses, unlikely as it sounds.

Steve shrugs, beaming so brightly she wants to reach for a light switch.

"I thought that was our thing." He explains innocently.

"That's not our thing." Kono denies vehemently. "Our thing is I call you Boss and you call me Kono and no one gets murdered in their sleep."

Steve just smiles at her expectantly, not looking particularly scared. He waits. And waits.

Oh my god, she just wants to go to bed.

"Goodnight Steve." She says sullenly.

"Goodnight to you too, Kono." He responds cheerfully, as she finally gets out of the car. "Sweet dreams!"

"Oh, fuck off."

She takes great satisfaction in slamming his car door shut forcefully.

**···················**

She drives around with Charlie, gathering gas samples and trying to figure out how she knows him, because how awkward is this, really. She's not bad with faces generally, but she's drawing a blank here.

She puts the last sample in the truck and they're just getting in the car to drive back to the lab when Steve calls. She figures she'll save herself some time, keep her hands free, and puts it on speaker.

"Hey Boss!" She greets, putting on her seatbelt.

"Hey babe." He says completely casual, like he calls her babe all the time, no innuendo or anything, exactly how he'd say her name. That vindictive little…"You finish collecting those gas samples yet?"

She hesitates for a second, sees Charlie's eyebrows jump to his hairline, but what can she really say without making this worse?

"Yeah, we just got the last one. We're heading back to the lab now to see if we can land a match."

Steve basically tells her to hurry then hangs up, leaving her to stare at Charlie in abject humiliation.

"No pressure." She laughs uncomfortably, turning on the engine and checking the dash in hopes of locating an eject button. Screw plugging in your iphone, that shit would actually be useful.

**···················**

Steve, despite popular opinion, is not insane. He has a plan. His plan is this: he's in love with Kono. Okay, no, that's not the plan. That's what made the plan necessary. It's become glaringly clear to him, after basically attacking her in the locker room, that he can't really function around Kono unless he's touching her, or assuring himself he'll get to touch her later.

It's pathetic and kind of disturbing, frankly, but he tries to accept it as fact because he's in the Navy, okay, and idle soul searching and painful self-analysis are things they're taught to avoid.

He's tried being distant and professional, and it didn't work, at all. It failed kind of spectacularly, actually, so he's trying something else now. Namely, he's trying to ease her into the possibility of maybe having a relationship with him at some point, hopefully in the not so distant future. Or maybe just have her wake up one day and realize they're already in a relationship and just go along with it. Cause that's realistic, right?

The problem is—even though he's stupidly attached to her, Kono does not appear to feel the same way. And even if she does, she's handling it way better than he is. She seems to like him well enough most of the time, and she's attracted to him (see: locker room incident, not that he's gloating or anything), but she still sees him first and foremost as her_ boss_. He doubts she's ever considered he wants to be more than that.

Which is why he came up with the plan.

**···················**

Charlie, it turns out, is Kelly's cousin, and hahaha, life is so funny sometimes. You play spin the bottle at your best friend's birthday party when you're ten, kiss her cousin then run into him in the middle of a murder case. Or, you sleep with some random guy in Australia and then five years later he ends up recruiting you to the Governor's task force.

Here's a question: does this shit actually happen to everyone, or did she just do something to royally fuck up her karma in a past life?

Charlie is nice and flirty and obviously interested, but she just feels weird and kind of guilty, which is ridiculous because she's not cheating on anyone, just to be clear. She's not in a relationship. Nope. Not even a little bit.

She still feels like shit for giving Charlie her number, even though he would have gotten it from Kelly anyway.

**···················**


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I don't own anything; all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).

A/N: There's two more chapters, people. Just letting you know.

**···················**

Kelly calls her at some hellish hour of the morning that weekend and wakes her up, asking to meet up for coffee at a diner near her place. Kono glares at her ceiling and warns Kelly that she better be buying because the promise of free breakfast food is the only thing that can get her to leave the bed right now. She hangs up before Kelly can try to argue her way out of it and orders a mountain of overpriced pancakes when she gets there, with coffee and orange juice, cheerfully informing Kelly she will also paying for dessert later. Kono's thinking something with chocolate.

Seriously, who calls someone up at eight on a Sunday?

"So my cousin really likes you." Kelly says bluntly as Kono's shoveling food in her mouth.

"Mhff." She nods distractedly, not quite awake yet.

"But he said he's not sure if he should ask you out because he thinks you're seeing your boss?"

She chokes, she actually fucking chokes, because Kelly is an awful person who's trying to murder her. She reaches for her water, tries to catch her breath again.

Kelly looks a tiny bit remorseful.

"In my defense, I wouldn't have let you choke to death. I'm a doctor."

"What, no doctor's has ever tried to kill someone before?" Kono accuses in a raspy voice. Kelly rolls her eyes, gets back on track.

"So I told him there's nothing going on with your boss, but I thought I'd check with you anyway, because Charlie seemed pretty certain and I thought I'd cover all my bases."

Kono does not see any way for this conversation to end well.

"Right." She says reluctantly, because Kelly hasn't actually asked her anything yet and who knows? All sorts of things could happen to interrupt them. Like an earthquake. A volcanic eruption. An alien invasion. She'll take anything at this point.

"So, nothing going on right?" Kelly repeats, with a questioning tone and everything, indicating she's expecting an answer. Kono looks at her half eaten pancakes and sighs despondently.

"Oh my god, Kono, is something going on? With your boss? Are you insane?" Kelly asks in wide eyed surprise. It would have been funny any other day, only her sense of humor has deserted her and is hiding in a bathroom somewhere, hyperventilating. Which is pretty much what she'd like to do, given the chance.

"Okay, first of all, that's real supportive of you, thanks ever so much." Kono says sarcastically. "And to answer your question, no, I'm not insane. And we're not dating or anything, but there might be something going on. Possibly."

"Well, okay." Kelly is studying at her carefully, like she's never seen her before. Oh, come on. It's her boss, not her cousin.

Oh, eww. Ew, ew, ew, oh my god. Why does her mind even—god. She might be getting sick.

"Have you slept with him?" Kelly leans forward to ask, as if this is vital information. Kono just slumps in her seat, considers trying to hide under the table. Kelly takes this as confirmation enough.

"Okay then." She says, looking a bit stunned. "So that was—How was that?"

Kono is blushing and sulking and generally acting like a twelve year old, and she blames Steve for this. And also Kelly.

"It was fine, what do you want me to say?"

"Something other than fine, preferably." Kelly retorts with an amused smirk.

"It was awesome, okay? I want to buy season tickets and go to every game, alright?"

Kelly stares at her for a second—then dissolves into laughter. Indecorous, vaguely hysterical, extremely high pitched laughter. People turn to stare and Kono is starting to regret getting up this morning and maybe being born at all.

"So, just to be clear…" Kelly is wheezing, "in that metaphor, your boss is a sports team?"

"I hate you." Kono declares with conviction. "I hope you choke and die and get reincarnated as something really disgusting that I can't think of right now and—would you stop laughing?"

**···················**

Steve's teaching her how to make lasagna. This does not include much active participation on her part; Steve does the actual cooking, and sometimes he narrates his actions in a serious voice, because he's figured out she doesn't interact well with household appliances. She just sits on the counter and hands him stuff, but it's still very entertaining. He should have his own cooking show. He can cook shirtless—he'll make millions.

The phone rings loudly, but the machine picks up right away, because she's hardly ever home and it makes more sense that way. Who calls on a landline these days anyway?

"Hey Kono, it's Charlie Fong."

Kono's eyes get comically wide, and she sits there, legs dangling, too stunned to react or dive for the phone or _something_ to stop what she suspects is going to be a train wreck.

"I don't want to step on any toes or anything, but I'd really like to take you out on a date sometime. So think about it, and call me, okay? Bye."

Steve has gone very quiet and stopped stirring. She's not a hundred percent sure of this, but the stirring does not seem optional.

"I think you're supposed to be stirring—"

"So Charlie Fong, right? How about that?" Steve says abruptly, looking at the boiling water and away from her. He turns off the stove, puts down the spoon he was holding carefully.

"Yeah." She says in a small voice, because she suspects he may be taking this bad.

"You gonna call him back or what?" He demands, turning so she can see his face, and he looks furious and hurt, like she's punched him in the gut or something, which is when Kono gets really really angry.

"I might." She declares icily, daring him to say something. "I'm not seeing anyone, after all."

"You're not—Then what the fuck is _this_, Kono?" He shouts. "What the fuck am I doing here?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you think we're in a relationship of some sort? Because I NEVER GOT THE MEMO." She snaps.

"Because I haven't been obvious enough?" Steve responds bitterly.

"I mean, you come here, we watch tv and you cook, and we have dinner and just—I thought we were friends! You never tried anything, how should I know what—"

"I never tried anything? I never—Did you forget the part where I fucked you in the locker room, Kono? Did you forget that? Did you forget how I couldn't stop long enough to let you lock the fucking door?"

"That was like, a one-time thing! You think because we had sex once, I'm your _girlfriend _or something?"

"Oh, so we don't have enough sex, is that your problem? Is that why you think this isn't a relationship?" He says dangerously, moving until he's right in front of her, coming to stand between her legs. "Cause I can fix that, you know?" He promises darkly, leaning closer to rest his hands on either side of her on the counter, and Kono doesn't move, she doesn't even breathe because she doesn't know if she should hit him or—no, she should probably hit him.

"So tell me, Kono." He says conversationally. "How many times exactly before this is a relationship?" He cups her face gently, tilting her mouth up, bringing his lips a breath away from hers. His hand slips down, starts bunching up her top, like he knows where this is going already and she's just not thinking straight with him so close.

"How many times before random assholes can't call you up without getting beat up? Just give me a number, just so we're clear." He leans down, presses his mouth to hers lightly, pulls back again. She's not sure she understands what language he's speaking at this point, he's so unbelievably good at this, the smug arrogant bastard.

She lets him pull off her top, leans up to kiss him, really kiss him, hands around his neck and fingers running through his short hair. He kisses her back fiercely then stops, pulls away again. "A number, babe?" He asks again, and oh my god, just shut up already, please.

"I don't know, three?" She says hoarsely, reaching for him again. He wraps his arms around her, finally, kisses her like he means it, desperate and forceful and half crazed. He pulls down her shorts, her underwear, and she hears the fabric tearing while her hands work on his belt shakily. He drags her to the edge of the counter, hands going to her hips to lift her up then slam her down on him sharply so gasps, breaks the kiss, eyes falling shut. He moves and she moans breathlessly, completely undignified, hands scrambling for purchase, bunching up his T-shirt and generally trying to hold on because oh my god why don't they do this all the time? Why?

"I say we try four, just to be safe." He pants in her ear, and she genuinely has no idea what he's talking about.

**···················**


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I don't own anything; all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).

A/N: Chapter twelve, in which I use an analogy and call it a metaphor, because analogy just sounded wrong. I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me.

**···················**

They're gathered around Fred, waiting for Steve to do his delegating thing. Chin is already in his office trying to pull the data from a really messed up SIM card, but no further orders have been given and Kono is using this time to discreetly upload some music on her iphone. What? She can multitask.

"Can you run the dental records, babe? See if you get a match?" Steve suggests absent mindedly, still reading through their suspect's financial records.

"I thought I was coming with you to see the husband." Danny says, obviously perplexed. Steve looks up, frowns.

"…I meant Kono."

Danny's eyebrows shoot up high on his forehead, and Kono almost breaks her neck, her head snaps up so fast.

Okay. Awkward.

"Sure." Kono says slowly, looking at Danny fearfully because let's be realistic here- she's expecting him to bitch about this.

"So, wait, we're calling Kono babe now?" Danny asks Steve incredulously, like he's just confessed to some terrible crime. See? Bitching.

Steve just shrugs. "Well _I_ am. You probably shouldn't, if you like having all your teeth."

There's a brief silence while Danny tries to let that sink in.

"Of course!" He exclaims dramatically. "Of course this happened. Of course you somehow managed to fall for the second most hard headed, reckless person on this pineapple infested island. And you!" He turns to point at Kono, scandalized. "What did I tell you about trying to break up The Beatles?"

"How is this _my_ fault?" Kono asks, affronted. Like she'd ever _want_ to break up The Beatles.

Okay, this metaphor is getting silly.

"Okay, children, calm down." Steve says loudly. "Danny, Kono is not trying to break up The Beatles. Kono is _in_ The Beatles, okay? Kono is part of this team." He says earnestly. Aw. That's kind of cute, how he's sticking up for her. Cute and unnecessary. "She is also extremely professional, so you can be sure there won't be any problems."

"Notice how he didn't promise anything about _him_ staying professional." Kono points out, playing devil's advocate. Steve looks at her in exasperation, but she just shrugs. Yeah, brah. Maybe he shouldn't talk about her like she's not in the room, next time.

"Oh my god, it's happening." Danny groans loudly. "I'm the third wheel already."

"What are you talking about?" Steve snaps at him, turning away to walk towards the elevators. Danny follows him, going off on another rant, and they leave for the interview, argument started before they even get to the car.

This, sadly, is not an unusual occurrence.

**···················**

She's just stepped out of the shower, washing the sand off after a morning at the beach, when she hears someone knocking. It's probably Steve again, even though he said he was working on his dad's car today. He must have given up. Steve, bless his heart, has many talents; fixing up cars, sadly, does not happen to be one of them.

She checks through the peep hole anyway because she's a cop, thank you very much, and she's not getting murdered like a blonde stereotype in a low budget horror flick.

It's Chin. Huh.

See? This is why you should always check. It could just as easily have been a crazed psychopath. I mean, in this heat? People are just a traffic jam away from crazy town.

"Hey cuz." He greets cheerfully and Kono notices he's carrying what appears to be a bag full of unhealthy sugary stuff Steve strongly disapproves of. Whatever. At least if it kills her, she'll die happy, right?

"Cuz!" She smiles widely, letting him in. "You didn't have to bring anything." She says with some reluctance, because discouraging people from bribing her with stuff seems impolitic.

Chin laughs at her obvious lying and hands her the paper bag. "I just wanted to spend some time with my favorite cousin, catch up. I haven't seen a lot of you lately."

Kono shrugs, says something lame about work. They sit in the living room, and Kono makes them some coffee that Chin is too polite to turn down. Kono takes a sip from her cup, promptly spits it back out and advises Chin against trying it.

"Wasn't planning to." Chin says matter-of-factly, because why would he? She's the only person in this apartment who still harbors any hopes she'll one day be able to make a half way decent cup of coffee. Chin, sadly, has seen too much to expect any improvement.

He relaxes back on the couch, tilts his head to the side inquisitively.

"You have something to tell me, cuz?" He asks gently, in that tone that implies that he knows everything and will forgive her anything, because Chin is possibly the most annoyingly perfect person on the planet.

He's also really good at subtle manipulation and maybe jedi mind tricks, because that's the only rational explanation for what happens next.

"So, remember how you introduced me to Steve that day on the beach?" She blurts out, and it's like all brain to mouth filters have completely ceased to function. Not cool, brah.

"But you'd met before." Chin states calmly.

"Yes. That's right." She confirms easily, and this must be what it feels like to have an out of body experience—she can hear herself saying these things, but she doesn't remember actually deciding to open her mouth and form sentences. "I was still surfing—it was just a few months before my injury, in Australia."

Chin raises an eyebrow but stays quiet.

"It was stupid, but I thought I'd take advantage of the lower age limit, go to a bar. Steve was on leave, I think." She stops, because this is as descriptive as she's willing to get on this topic in front of her cousin. Anyway, he solves murders for a living, she's pretty sure he can fill in the blanks.

"You were what, eighteen?" Chin asks after a while, voice hinting at some emotion she can't identify. "Wouldn't have figured Steve for the type." He adds flatly and her stomach drops.

"That's—that's really unfair." Her voice is shaky. "He was probably like, twenty seven or something. That's not—"

"Right." Chin interrupts sharply. He lets out a breath, runs a hand down his face. "Right." He says again. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah." She mumbles, crossing her arms in front of her, not convinced he wants to hear any more.

"Is that what's been going on lately?" Chin asks, sounding calm and neutral again.

"No, that's—We're…dating." She tries, and it sounds awkward but whatever. "He's been trying to teach me how to cook." She adds for effect, and it gets Chin to smile.

"Brave man." He comments snarkily, as if he can't help mocking her.

Yeah. They'll be alright.

**···················**

They're in the break room, Danny glaring at the TV in resentful silence, while Steve tries to relax and watch the football game. His efforts are in vain, though, because Danny in a bad mood is harder to ignore than someone pointing a gun to your head.

"You're seriously not going to tell me what the hell happened to your face?" Danny asks disbelievingly.

"You know it is the definition of insanity to do the same thing over and over expecting different results, right?" Steve informs him, keeping his eyes on the TV. "If I didn't answer this question the first fourteen hundred times you asked today, what on earth makes you think I'll answer it now?"

"Oh, I'm insane now? This from a guy who once refused to let me inside the building until he'd inspected my lunch bag. And I'm insane for wanting to know how you ended up with a black eye! Well, excuse me for caring." Danny huffs, crossing his arms over his chest and falling back against his chair.

There's a pause while Danny pouts and Steve finds himself feeling irrationally guilty for _not sharing_. God.

"It was Chin." He sighs in defeat, resolving to spend less time with Danny and his new age touchy feely crap in the future.

"What was Chin?"

"It was Chin who punched me, okay?"

Danny turns his head towards him so slowly he has to be exaggerating. It's sort of spooky—Steve half expects his head to just keep going, like that scene in The Exorcist.

"Chin punched you?" He raises an eyebrow in speculation. "What, did you tell him about you and Kono? Because I'm pretty sure he already suspected."

"No, he—We had a little talk about the first time I met her."

Danny seems to contemplate this for a sec. "That's right. You guys had met before." He says slowly, remembering.

"Yeah." Steve shifts uncomfortably in his chair and Danny furrows his brow.

"I'm missing some vital clue here." His partner hypothesizes. "Because I still don't see why Chin would punch you over that."

Steve sighs again, loudly. "Why are we still talking about this? You know what happened, let's move on."

"I could just ask Kono." Danny threatens simply, like he's talking about the weather. This is not good news for Steve; Kono is only too happy to broadcast anything remotely embarrassing about him since he made that unfortunate comment about her cooking in front of a couple of people from HPD on their last case.

A comment he's apologized for. Repeatedly.

He might have to invest in some chocolate. Or possibly some flowers.

"So I met Kono a few years ago in Australia." Steve volunteers, because let's face it; nothing Kono could have to say on the subject would paint him in a good light.

"Australia?" Danny interjects in mild disbelief. "Let me get this straight. You're telling me you both grew up on an island _this small_ and her cousin was your father's partner, but you two met in an entirely different continent? Because that's not weird or anything."

"As I was saying" he continues pointedly, ignoring Danny's rude interruption, "I was in Australia on leave. Catherine was supposed to be meeting me there but that fell through, so I was out drinking and that's where I met Kono."

"If this story is going where I suspect it's going, I am not sure I can handle any more details." Danny says bitingly, probably under the mistaken assumption he's being funny.

"Ok then." Steve shrugs, turning back to the game.

"What was Kono doing in Australia anyway?" Danny questions, not quite ready to drop this yet.

"Surfing competition." Steve offers absent mindedly, as a quarterback almost gets tackled but manages to get out of it in the last possible second.

"I thought she blew out her knee when she was like, eighteen." Danny persists.

"That's right." He agrees casually, downing the rest of his beer. He glances back at Danny to see he looks thoroughly offended by this. Great.

"You are disgusting." He declares, enunciating each word carefully. "Chin should have rearranged your face, you sorry excuse for a—I don't even know what to say to you. There is no word in the English language to adequately describe your degree of moral ineptitude. I am literally speechless, that's how disturbing this is."

"You realize you're still talking right?"

"You realize you're beyond creepy to me now, right?"

Steve just sinks back in his chair, because this feels like it might go on for a while.

**···················**


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I don't own anything; all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).

A/N: This story would never have been written if not for Diana (the amazing cm757) who is the driving force behind most stories for this pairing out there and an excellent writer hersef. Thank you. Also, much love to people who reviewed, it means a lot, and thanks to everyone for reading :)

**···················**

"So I don't get your weird obsession with your car." She brings up randomly, because you never know, he could have a legitimate reason for being a control freak. People can surprise you.

Steve glances at her, then turns back to watch the road. "Come again?"

"You know" Kono gestures impatiently "your disturbing attachment to this vehicle? I don't get it."

Steve just looks puzzled.

"Oh, you don't know what I'm talking about? That time I climbed in from the back seat? You looked positively homicidal." She reminds him.

"Okay, I remember that. I wasn't homicidal. You totally misread that." He assures her.

Yeah, right.

"Fine, okay. So there are no rules I should be aware of?"

"I am not attached to this car, Kono." He explains patiently. "I have to drive this car, at a great speed, towards people with guns who are frequently trying to shoot me. I can't _afford_ to be attached to this car." That is an excellent point.

She's still not convinced.

"So I could, hypothetically, take my shoes off?"

"Sure." He shrugs nonchalantly.

"I could eat something really messy and get crumbs all over the place?"

"You realize I drive _Danny_ around in this car, right? He's always eating something messy. The car wash near my place has started giving me a discount."

So he's saying she's imagining the whole thing? Really?

"Can I reprogram all your stations?" She motions to the radio, only half joking because oh my god his taste in music is atrocious.

"Knock yourself out." He smiles in exasperated amusement and, you know, he genuinely doesn't seem to care about this car that much.

There's a small pause while she considers her options.

"Can I drive sometime?" She asks in a last ditch effort. She figures it's a good bet, because Steve won't let Danny drive his own car most of the time, he's so screwed up.

"If it will get you to drop this, then sure babe, you can drive." He smirks, giving her a look that says he knows what she's doing.

Damn it.

She…may have been wrong. She takes a minute to consider this, seeing as it's not a very common occurrence. Not that she's bragging or anything—that wouldn't be very attractive. You know, she should focus on the positive, here. This opens up a whole array of possibilities.

"Huh." She says thoughtfully.

Steve glances over suspiciously. "What?"

"Nothing." She shrugs with a small smile.

"No, come on. You have that look."

"What look?" She asks, still smiling.

"The look that you get sometimes, when you're about to be very nice to me." He says, mouth twisting up in a smirk.

"Well…" Kono laughs suggestively and Steve takes his eyes off the road to glance at her, trying to read her mood. "As it happens, I _am_ planning on being very nice to you." She admits, unbuckling her seatbelt and shifting around in her seat.

Steve glances at her again, swallows nervously, looking mildly alarmed. "How nice are we talking, here?" He asks, sounding somewhere between excited and terrified.

She leans over until she's practically in his lap and he freezes, inhaling sharply as she kisses the side of his mouth. "Very, very nice." She whispers, hands tracing down his t-shirt. He swears, clutches the steering wheel tighter.

"Fuck, Kono, I don't think—"He tries, voice strained.

"Shut up and try not to drive us off a cliff, okay?" She suggests pleasantly, reaching for his belt.

**···················**

"Finally! I was about to send out a search party." Danny remarks in halfhearted annoyance, as if he's too bored to be bothered but feels he should try to keep up appearances anyway.

"Oh, did you have to do your own paperwork for once?" Kono snarks unsympathetically, going to lean against the table across from Danny. Steve stays a couple of steps behind her, watching the exchange in amusement.

"Okay, I deeply resent that!" Danny straightens up, taking offence. "I'll have you know paperwork fascinates me. I could literally stare at it for hours, which is exactly what I've been doing since the two of you decided to take a detour. Where were you anyway?" He asks, eyes narrowing in suspicion when he realizes they've managed to evade the question so far.

Steve composes his face, ready to stare his partner down until he drops it, maybe even threaten him to never speak of this again, but Kono jumps in.

"We were pulled over." She offers casually, not the slightest bit embarrassed. Danny scrunches up his face, glances between them in disbelief.

"You were pulled over? _Why _were you pulled over?" He asks warily, with the air of a man already regretting posing the question. Kono just shrugs, turns to look at Steve nonchalantly.

Steve feels himself flushing but raises a challenging eyebrow, because really? She has no problem sharing this story with Danny? Seriously? Talk about a wild streak.

"Um, hello? Anyone in there? Steve? Want to tell me why you got pulled over?" Danny waves a hand in front of Steve's face. Kono continues to look at him impassively so he clears his throat, turns to Danny.

"Erratic driving." He says curtly, hoping against hope that his partner will just drop it.

Danny stares. And stares.

"Erratic driving." He states, testing out the words. "Were you drinking? I know you weren't drinking. What would you be doing that—" Danny's mouth drops, literally, like you see in cartoons.

"Oh my god. Why? Why would you put that image in my head? I am scarred for life! You depraved, sex crazed—oh my god, I am surrounded by hormone driven lunatics. Did you get a ticket? I hope you got a ticket, you reckless son of a bitch! And you, you better stop smiling missy, I know you're the instigator here. You two…" He gestures emphatically, "…are never driving in the same car again. And you better believe we're taking the Camaro everywhere, my friend, because I am not getting in that car again, oh no."

Steve tries to keep his face blank while Kono just stares at Danny in bemusement, eyes sparkling with barely repressed mirth. Steve turns to look at her, trying to be annoyed and failing spectacularly because, really. Kono is reckless and gorgeous and frequently infuriating and he's sort of stupidly in love with her.

So whatever. He'll just pay the ticket and—work on his driving.

**···················**

It's Kono's day off and she and Kelly have stopped at Kamekona's for some shave ice after a morning at the beach. Kelly is being super animated and obnoxiously cheerful, a result of her new infatuation with Maya the formerly despised pediatrician. They've been on three dates thus far, and Kelly has taken great pleasure in describing all of them in detail, down to the sparkly earrings Maya was wearing and the cute way she was playing with her hair.

God. If she ever starts talking about Steve like that, she is giving Chin permission to shoot her.

"But enough about me!" Kelly decides after a three hour monologue. "How are things with boss-man, my little deviant?" Oh my god, no.

"Okay, let's agree right now that you'll never call me that again. That just sounds off." Kono suggests uncomfortably.

"Oh! Did I hit a nerve?" Kelly leans forward, intrigued. "Are you into that sort of thing? Does he tie you up? Do you tie him up? Spill!" Seriously, Kono's no prude, but around Kelly she feels downright PG-13 most of the time.

A woman walking by them covers up her kid's ears and rushes past, turning to glare at Kono judgingly until she can feel her face heating up.

"Okay, first of all, you need to keep your voice down, there are impressionable children around." Kono warns in a tone that threatens bodily harm. "And there has been no tying anyone up, thank you very much." She continues in a loud whisper. Although with Steve's issues she wouldn't put it past him to bring it up at some point.

"Well, that's a shame." Kelly says in all seriousness. "But how are things going, really?"

Kono shrugs, thinks for a second. "It's…great. It just _works_, you know? It doesn't feel weird or anything, it hasn't changed our dynamics that much."

"Oh, so you do like someone in charge in the bedroom." Kelly remarks. It's like she can't help it. "Good to know." She nods gravely, biting her lip to hide an evil smirk even though she's not fooling anyone.

"That's it." Kono snaps moodily. "I'm confiscating your Sex and the City box-set, it's obviously poisoning your mind."

**···················**

Turns out she likes being tied up. Who would have thought (except maybe Kelly and she really shouldn't be thinking about Kelly right now, even though it was sort of her idea and Kono should probably send her a gift basket or something)?

"Have I mentioned I love you?" Steve says from where he collapsed somewhere to her left on the bed, panting for breath and sounding close to passing out.

Kono's eyes snap open, and she turns her head to look at the side of his jaw, which is the only part of his face she can see right now.

Oh my god.

"You are such an asshole." She says flatly, because seriously? This is how he tells her he loves her? Right after mind blowing sex, when you could probably get him to confess to a terrorist plot? _Seriously?_

He's so fucking hopeless.

"What?" He asks in a confused voice. Kono sighs deeply, praying for patience.

"Nothing." She says sharply. She closes her eyes, scoots over until she's pressed against his side, Steve's arm coming to fall around her waist automatically. "Just…go to sleep. I love you too."

**···················**

The end.


End file.
